Sociocultural and developmental influences on body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitudes and behaviors of Asian women

This study is an examination of the influence of sociocultural and developmental factors on body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitudes and behaviors in two Asian populations: 298 Taiwanese-American (TA) women undergoing acculturating changes and 347 Taiwanese (T) women undergoing modernizing changes. Contrary to the initial hypothesis, body dissatisfaction rates and disordered eating attitudes and behaviors were found to be significantly higher in the T group. Subjects in the T group had higher Taiwanese ethnic identity scores but also lower perceptions of maternal control. Body dissatisfaction was found to be a moderating variable between ethnic identity and disordered eating attitudes and behaviors for the TA group only. The "girl next door" hypothesis, based on the social comparison theory, was set forth to help explain why this result was found only in the TA group. In the T group, ethnic identity and body dissatisfaction were independently associated with disordered eating. Results failed to support a link between parental control and the development of an eating disorder, and implications from a cross-cultural perspective are addressed.